


The Healing Properties of Reading a Book Out Loud to Your Loved Ones, and Other Domestic Bullshit

by Prince_Enby



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Depression, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kel-centric, PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychological Trauma, Time Travel Fix-It, but also BONDING!!!, follows the neutral-bad ending :), standard omori warnings tbh, theres fluff.....i think....eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-27 18:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30127011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_Enby/pseuds/Prince_Enby
Summary: The thirty-fifth edition of Captain Spaceboy is one that lived in infamy within Kel's heart. It revolved around the Mercury Retrograde getting stranded amidst an asteroid field after running out of fuel; Spaceboy had left the safety of the ship himself to try and find a source of energy on one of the asteroids, hopefully to return with enough power to steer the ship out of harm's way.However, a space storm had hit at the same time without warning, glitching Spaceboy's navigation and causing him to get lost. In his attempts to get back to safety, he stumbled upon a wormhole, getting trapped within. He was spat out on the other side and found that it had brought him back in time, of all things. Finding himself with the opportunity to change the wrongs of his past, the edition explored his moral dilemma as he tried to decide whether he even had the right to rewrite history, or if his obligation to the not-yet-existing crew took more priority.Fucking thirty-fifth edition.
Relationships: Kel & Aubrey, Kel & Basil, Kel & Hero, Kel & Sunny, Sunny & Hero & Kel & Aubrey & Basil
Comments: 23
Kudos: 147





	1. kel is me but with every season of vld past season 2

**Author's Note:**

> "miles wait arent you supposed to be working on sunny being bad at naming things?? whats this??" shut the FUCK up. kel time-travel brainrot. "  
> "but you left off on a very tense situation and itd be really swell if you resolved it???" SHUT the FUCK up. KEL TIME-TRAVEL BRAINROT.

The thirty-fifth edition of Captain Spaceboy is one that lived in infamy within Kel's heart. It revolved around the Mercury Retrograde getting stranded amidst an asteroid field after running out of fuel; Spaceboy had left the safety of the ship himself to try and find a source of energy on one of the asteroids, hopefully to return with enough power to steer the ship out of harm's way.

However, a space storm had hit at the same time without warning, glitching Spaceboy's navigation and causing him to get lost. In his attempts to get back to safety, he stumbled upon a wormhole, getting trapped within. He was spat out on the other side and found that it had brought him back in time, of all things. Finding himself with the opportunity to change the wrongs of his past, the edition explored his moral dilemma as he tried to decide whether he even had the right to rewrite history, or if his obligation to the not-yet-existing crew took more priority.

Kel has no clue how that arc ended. Not even a little. It lasted five entire editions, and as far as he was concerned, he had better things to do with his time than read that trash. In fact, if asked, he would go so far as to deny its existence entirely. He despised it.

Why? It was lazy! Poorly-written! Completely out of character! He hated the time-travel trope to begin with, but, he had naively thought that surely a series as great as Captain Spaceboy could at lease make it tolerable, right? Right?! Wrong! Very, very wrong! 

Not only was the device used to instigate the time-travel itself lazy and uncreative - A wormhole of all things! - but the arc explored all the wrong aspects of it! Spaceboy was a space pirate for crying out loud! A vagabond, an outlaw, a space-age Robin Hood! He wouldn't spend even five minutes contemplating the morality of changing the timeline - he'd seize the opportunity with an iron grasp! For heaven's sake, his mourning of the Pluto Retrograde and their leader's betrayal spanned three whole arcs, and not once were they even mentioned!

Kel could go on-and-on about all the things editions thirty-five through fourty for hours. He could write an essay about it; In fact, he has! In a sleep-deprived Orange-joe-consumption stupor, of course, so it was undeniably illegible, but it was written nonetheless! That's just how much he hated that goddamn arc. It was the source of his every problem in life, he was sure of it. He blamed it for his bad grades, for his every missed basket, for his every social faux-pas, for the one time he tripped for no good reason in front of the whole gym and got a bloody nose, and he absolutely, whole-heartedly, with no hesitation blamed him for whatever the _fuck_ he was looking at in the mirror.

He raised his hand, watching as the thing in the mirror rose its own, and clenched and unclenched a fist. It copied. He waved his hand in front of his face. It did too. He raised both hands, as it did as well, pinched both his cheeks and pulled, much like he used to do to Hero. It did the exact. Same. Thing.

The "thing" in the mirror was a carbon-copy of what he used to look like when he was twelve. Same chubby cheeks, same big eyes, same lanky limbs, and exact same pajamas. It was...concerning, he thought, that he seemed to be hallucinating, but well - anything could happen these days, honestly. His biggest concern was how to tell Hero - because he knew he'd have to - because he could see now just how badly Hero would freak. He'd get all overbearing, _again_ , and then mom and dad would take him to a doctor, _again_ , and he'd end up worrying everyone. _Again_.

He groaned. The reflection's face dropped the same way his did. Ugh.

There was another problem to the weird hallucinogetic fit he's having, and that's that it wasn't just the reflection that looked weird. The clothes he himself was wearing - a tank-top and shorts that he outgrew years ago - and the bathroom he was standing in was...off. Everything looked, felt, bigger. He was pretty much as tall as Hero was, and had been for a while, so he was used to towering over most things in his home, but now the sink barely reached the bottom of his ribs. His mom's moisturizer was bigger than his hand. The doorknob was at chest-height.

It was really fucking weird.

On any other day, he'd be tempted to start bugging out. Wake up Hero, call up Aubrey, something - but honestly? He just...really wanted to get back to sleep. He lived and swore by the power of getting a good night's sleep, and was about 85% sure that reality would get itself back in working order by the time we woke up. And if it didn't? Well, that was a problem for Morning. Present Kel only woke up because Aubrey had bet him twenty dollars he couldn't drink a gallon of water in half an hour before he went to bed and he really needed to use the bathroom.

Yeah, sleep sounded good.

With one last glare at his reflection that was delivered right back at him, Kel left the bathroom, and went back to bed.

~~~

_"KELSEY! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL!"_

Kel woke with a start, disoriented and very unhappy. He rubbed his face with his hands, taking in a deep breath and holding it for a count of ten lest he yell out a rude retort, and slowly lowered his hands on the exhale. He yawned, stretched his back out until it popped, and angrily rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

Why. The hell. Was his mom waking him up for school. During summer break? Why? Why? Why?! He hadn't even needed her to wake him up for school at all since he started highschool, so what kind of cruel joke is this? His sleep, his poor, precious sleep...

Then, he noticed something. 

Well, many somethings, but this was a big something. 

Hero...was still asleep. Not that that was the strangest thing to wake up to, but...his entire side of the room was a mess. Clothes were thrown in piles, blankets were bunched up on the floor, dirty cups and plates of seemingly untouched food were scattered on the dresser and food wrappers were scattered everywhere. Hero was still where he slept. Very, very still.  
Kel...

Kel had seen this before. 

Looking down, he noticed how small and chubby his hands were, how big his blanket and pillows were compared to him, how half the posters he owned weren't on the walls and that his beloved, brand-new stereo was nowhere to be seen. The backpack sitting at the foot of his bed was bright orange with yellow stars, despite him vividly remembering how he'd broke both zippers a week into sophomore year and had to get a new one. The stack of books Hero had gotten him a month ago was missing from under his bed when he checked, and the pair of shoes he found in the closet was a full four sizes too small for what he wore now.

He remembered last night.

"What the..." He mumbled, and sat back onto his bed. His voice was squeaky. 

He had a headache.

Fucking thirty-fifth edition.


	2. *to the tune of yankee doodle* kel omori fell through time, holding back a break-down. slapped a bandaid on his brain as he walked through his home-town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yknow i COULD wait and post chapters until AFTER i actually had a good amount written. but do i want to? no. have a nice day.

Kel passed through school in a daze. Miraculously, he managed to get dressed, find breakfast, and get out the door in time to catch the bus, all without bursting into tears or hysterical laughter. He probably _shouldn't_ have been so surprised - it was him, after all, and his ability to function without conscious input from his brain was carefully honed from years of doing just that. It's all about routine, baby.

That said, he did almost forget that his stop was at the junior high, _not_ the high school - oh god, he was back in _middle school_ , he was surrounded by _middle schoolers_ \- but a very fortunate paper airplane hit the back of his head in time to knock him back into the present so he could get off. He was thankful enough for it that he ignored the rude message written inside.

School was...weird. And uncomfortable. He got a headache not even ten minutes into his first lesson. He found his classes on autopilot, and thanked the stars above that he never had a reputation for actually paying attention in class. He didn't think he could listen to the teachers if you paid him. Not that he really needed to, since he...kinda already knew everything, which was a _really_ weird feeling. And by "kinda" he meant "definitely", seeing as he's _already done this before._

God. He's already done this before.

He -

He went _back in time._

_What the fuck._

His mind flipped back and forth between those two thoughts as he went from class to class, doodling rocks in his notebook and praying that no teachers try to call on him. How the hell did he manage to go back in time?? Did - did he do it on _accident?_ How would a person break the laws of time on _accident...?_

Well, if anyone could do it, it would probably be him. He was pretty good at stumbling into messes. This...this was just a bigger-than-normal mess. Yeah.

The "why" wasn't important anyways. It was a _little_ important, but not as important as the "how". He'd...figure out the "how" later. It...probably wasn't something as simple (or stupid) as a wormhole.

Ah, but you know what would be something simple? Checking the "when"! As far as he knew, it was sometime during the first year after Mari's death...but that was all. He _really_ needed to know the exact date, if nothing more than so he can see how long he has until the weekend gives him free-time to freak out.

He decided to check when he got home as opposed to during the school day, _just_ in case seeing that kind of definitive proof was enough to snap his already tenuous self-restraint. It was just as well, that he even _remembered_ that he needed to check the date in time for the bell to ring and school to let out.

Thank god. His last class of the day was math. No matter how far ahead of the current grade level he was, math remained his dearly detested....even if seventh grade math was a thousand times easier than his tenth grade geometry.

Lord help him. Seventh grade. Not even the miniature highschool atmosphere of eighth grade, no, he had to go back to _seventh_ grade. He's done literally nothing to deserve this.

His melodramatic thoughts carried him through the bus ride back home. The truck was missing from the garage, so his parents thankfully weren't home...he wasn't sure how he'd interact with them just yet. The front door looked _so much_ bigger now that he wasn't on the verge of having to duck to enter the house. He probably couldn't even reach above the door-frame if he jumped. He was going to have to get _very_ used to the extreme change in height. He was so much closer to the ground now...

Ah. He's going to trip a lot, isn't he? It's his growth spurt all over again, only worse, because he got _shorter_ instead of _taller_. He's going to need a _lot_ of practice getting used to his tiny body again.

Seeing as he was now extra self-conscious of his stature, the first thing he did upon opening the door was, of course, trip over his own feet. He did not immediately get up, choosing to mourn the impending loss of his dignity when he inevitably trips in front of other people. Rest in peace, Kel's Future Dignity. You shall be missed.

He sighed. He was pathetic.

A few miserable moments more and he finally picked himself up off the ground, dusted himself off, and - very, _very_ carefully - made his way up to his room. He slowly opened the door and - paused. Stared.

His breath caught at the sight of his brother. Hero was once again stuck in his own personal hell, trapped by grief and unable to move on. There was another plate beside his bed, food untouched. Not a wrinkle on the bed had changed from when Kel woke up.

Pain seized his chest as Kel fought to just breath normally. His eyes stung. His hands were clammy. His heart hurt. He wanted to leave.

He quietly made his way across the room to his bed, keeping Hero in his peripheral at all times. The air was dry and stuffy. He shrugged off his backpack and sat down, hugging it in his lap as he watched his brother. Hero was barely more than a lump of tangled hair sticking out of the blankets, his shoulders rising and falling ever so slowly. As still as a corpse. Kel counted the plates and glasses around the room. He felt numb.

The house was quiet. 

He...

He breathed. He breathed in once, and out once. In once, out once. In for three, out for five. In for three, out for five. 

And then he slapped himself.

The smack resounded through the room, not causing so much as a twitch in the other occupant, but doing more than enough to kickstart Kel's thinking abilities. 

Right, so! He needed to do a lot of things. Like, a _lot_ a lot. Like an entire list. First thing on that list? _Make_ the list. Very important. And to make a list, he needed...time. And space. Preferably away from the depressed husk of his brother.

Okay, so that meant...getting out of the house. Alright! Time to take a walk, then. Perfect walking practice. Oh, right! _And_ he needed to check the date! Also very important. He had a calendar in the drawer of his desk, so he'd just tip-toe over there and take a peek...

...

......

(He'd have to walk closer to Hero to get to the desk.)

There's a calendar in the kitchen. He'd just look at that one. 

He did not run out of the bedroom. Not only did he not want to break the quiet any more than he already has, but he also didn't trust his feet to move that fast without twisting an ankle. He also didn't trust them to take him down the stairs, despite being able to take him _up_ the stairs; There was a really big difference between falling up and falling _down_ a flight of stairs.

He crawled down the steps like the gremlin he remembered being at this age. His parents weren't home to judge him.

He ended up using the wall to help him balance as he walked to the kitchen. Jesus, how did he manage an _entire_ day at school without faceplanting once? Was it his autopilot? Maybe. Probably. His body probably had the muscle memory to walk correctly, it was his stupid dumb future brain that kept messing up...Well! He'd always been good at not thinking. He'd get the hang of it eventually.

After a long, arduous journey through the hallway, Kel finally managed to plop himself against the counter of the kitchen. The calendar was hanging on the wall above, and a looksie showed the date to be a Thursday, so he thankfully only had to wait one more day until the freedom of the weekend, and it was...

...a month after Mari died.

He felt faint. A month? Only a _month?!_ It - it took an entire _year_ for Hero to get out of bed, and it's barely even been a week since his thirteenth birthday?!

Inhale.

Exhale.

He needed that walk. Now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont wanna see ANY of you bitches agreeing w/ kel abt math in the comments. i AM a math nerd and it physically pained me to write his in-character slander


	3. WE'RE gonna sing about the verb "to be" and it's SER SER SER SER SER

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brought to you by   
> ( https://youtu.be/O45wjys1Cu0 ) this song my spanish teacher used that has been stuck in my head ever since

" _Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco..._ "

The november air was crisp as Kel walked down the street. He took his time with each careful step, watching his feet carefully as he willed himself not to trip onto the concrete. The back of his head was buzzing with panicked half-thoughts, worries and feelings bumping into the walls of his mind like a DVD screensaver. It tempted him to fall into hysterics, but seeing as he would rather not start rumors about himself by breaking down in the middle of public, he distracted himself by counting out each and every step he took. In Spanish.

Did he really need to practice for that test Spanish class anymore? No, of course not, he's not going to take it until four years from now. Still, it was a fun - if difficult - class, and the added difficulty of basic counting _did_ help turn his focus away from his thoughts. And if he could somehow learn enough Spanish _before_ he started that class...

He had a brief fantasy of walking into his first Spanish class and holding a fluent conversation with his teacher in the given language. There were tears in her eyes as she gave him an automatic 100 for the year. The class cheered his name. He was given an award by the state, and a full-ride scholarship for any college of his choosing.

" _Catorce, quince, diecisis_ \- wait, no, di-e-ci- _seis_ , yeah, di-e-ci- _siete_..."

Hm. He was a little far off from his dream. Oh, well.

Eventually, he made it to the park. It wasn't very late, so there were still plenty of people milling about. Kids ran around the playground, yelling in delight as they chased each other and jumped into leaf piles. Chatting couples strolled near the tree-line. There were no scooters parked anywhere.

He usually enjoyed people-watching and the sounds of life, but at the moment the noise just brought his headache back full force. With a huff, he trudged on through the park, heading straight for the Hideout.

The sight of the Hideout brought a unique pain - not because of how faded and overgrown it looked, no, but because of how _clean_ it looked. He was _used_ to the weeds, to how off-color all the toys and Mari's blanket looked. But now, the blanket was as bright as ever, the grass was still short and not yet recovered from dozens of little feet trampling over it for years. The only difference between this Hideout and the one from his far, far off childhood memories were the brown and orange leaves falling from trees and covering the earth. It...it couldn't have been more than a handful of months since they were all here last.

Kel breathed.

He walked farther into the Hideout, idly looking around, and sat down in the middle of the area. Normally, he'd sit on the edge of the pier to watch the water ripple, but...He wasn't particularly ready to see his reflection. Not yet.

He lied down. A blue sky filled with fluffly clouds spanned above him. He might have stopped walking, and therefore had no more steps to count, but still he didn't want to think just yet.

"The conjugations of the verb _ser_ are _Yo soy, Tu eres, El, Ella, Usted es, Nosotros somos, Vosotros sois,_ and _Ellos, Ellas, Ustedes son._ " He said. He blinked at the sky, and sighed. Sitting up a little, he unzipped his jacket and slipped it off.

He then balled it up and screamed directly into the fabric.

Catharsis.

Okay! Emotions were hereby fully under control until further notice. Nothing a good yell couldn't fix! He was good to go until the weekend. Now...what to do in the meantime?

Well...it couldn't hurt to make a rough draft of the things he needed to do, could it? He didn't have a pencil and paper, but surely even a _mental_ list could be useful. He'd dub it: _Kel's List of Really Bad Things He'd Rather Not Go Through Again, Thank You Very Much._ He wasn't fully convinced this whole thing wasn't a cruel nightmare, but _just in case_ it wasn't, he'd like this portion of his childhood to be a lot better than how it originally went.

So, first thing he needed to tackle is...Hero. Hero, who is stuck in the deepest depressive episode of his life, and who is mourning the _recent_ loss of the love of his life. The Hero that, if left unchecked, could spend an entire year stuck in bed. The Hero that was absolutely capable of tearing him a new one if he stepped too far out of line. _That_ Hero.

There was a tiny pit of dread and anxiety in Kel's stomach as he thought about it. He had to do _something_ to help - there's no way in _Hell_ he was gonna sit by and twiddle his thumbs while Hero spiralled that deep _again_. But what was he supposed to _do_?

He'd...he'd have to come up with something later. That was fine. He had time.

Next up, Aubrey! That should be easy(er)! Except he had no clue when her dad left her. _Wow_ , that made him feel like a jerk. It wasn't like she went around just _telling_ that to people, though! He couldn't have left _already_ , right? So soon after his daughter's friend died? He wasn't _that_ much of an ass, right? Right??

It said a lot about the man that Kel wasn't sure.

Either way, it...wasn't like Kel could stop him from leaving. Could he? What would he even do, knock on her door and go, "Hey Mr. Aubrey's Dad! Think you could do me a favor and maybe _not_ abandon your daughter? Thanks!"? He didn't even know why he left in the first place! Was it the house?

Should...should Kel offer to start cleaning Aubrey's house?

...He'll save that for Plan Y.

Her whole problem over that last (future?) four years was that she felt abandoned by him and the others as _well_ as her dad, so maybe he should just...talk to her. She was probably going to be a jerk about it, he knew that much, but if he could handle the bodily threats given to him dailiy by a delinquent Aubrey, he could handle the attitude of a tween Aubrey. This one hasn't even dyed her _hair_ yet.

He nodded to himself as he thought this. He was sixteen years old. He was definitely immune to the words of a seventh grader. Except, wait, since his birthday's technically passed, did that mean he was actually seventeen? It was only September when he went to sleep last night...

Yuck. He didn't come here to do _math_. Disgusting.

Moving on, his next course of action would be...

...

......

.........

............One step at a time. He'd deal with _them_ later.

(His chest felt tight.)

He was fine.

He was fine, except he'd been sitting on the ground with his jacket off for a _while_ now, and he was _freezing_. As if summoned by his remembering the time of year, the wind blew harshly and covered him in leaves. He shivered. Stupid November cold fronts. He sighed. Time to head home...back to his brother......who was depressed......

..................and had been left completely alone, oh _fuck_ -

In accordance with the Shakespearean comedy that was his life, in his haste to get up and get back home, his stupid short traitorous limbs tripped over themselves and he got a face full of dirt. Not one to be deterred, Kel didn't even bother cleaning himself off before taking off again, routinely pin-wheeling his arms to avoid hitting something a lot more solid and painful.

He got to his house (thankfully with _out_ falling over himself again) and noted the garage was _still_ empty, meaning his parents _still_ weren't home. Alarm coursed through his veins as he pulled open the door, a familiar terror taking root in his chest. 

The house was silent as he checked the kitchen drawers. (Nothing out of place.)

The house was silent as he checked the medicine cabinet. (Nothing out of place.)

The house was silent as he cracked open his bedroom door. (Nothing out of place.)

Nothing out of place. Hero hadn't moved an inch.

Kel was almost dizzy with relief, internally berating himself for leaving the house _at all_. His parents would kill him if they found out, and he'd _let_ them, because he _knew_ not to leave someone that bad off by themselves. He fucking _knew_ that. And what did he do? What did he _fucking_ do?

_Idiot._

He crouched down until his forehead touched his knees, and wrestled with his thoughts. He needed to calm down. Nothing happened while he was away. He was fine. Hero was fine. Everything was fine.

He reached up to tug at his hair - an unfortunate habit he'd picked up from Aubrey - only to pause when he found a leave stuck in it. That was also when the taste of dirt registered, and with a flick of his tongue he found there was grass stuck in his teeth.

He kind of forgot he tripped earlier...

...He should take a shower before his parents got home.


	4. hes got a point; losing a hundred bucks overnight without even getting to spend it sucks ass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have to stop writing everything in the middle of the night... but i dont want to

_Kel was stuck in his room again. He sat curled up on his bed, hugging his blanket tight around him like a shield. His eyes flickered anxiously between the door, Hero's bed, and his own hands. He counted his breaths, oh so carefully. If he didnt, if he let his nerves take control, his heart would speed up enough for him to hear his its beat, and he couldn't let that happen._

_Voices drifted faintly from beyond his bedroom door, coming from downstairs. It was the sound of his family having dinner. He wanted to join, really, he did, but - not today. It was a bad day today._

_Instead, he had to content himself with hearing their chatter from the safety of his room. But the dining room was so far away, he could hardly hear them - he couldn't make out any words, but barely, just barely, he could distinguish each other's voices._

_His mom was the easiest, as she was the most talkative. Most of the conversation could be attributed to her. His dad, too, while not as chatty, had a loud voice. Sally, well, she was a baby - it was kind of hard not to hear her._

_After a while, he could even make out Aubrey's voice. That was...nice. She started spending a lot more time with them after **It** happened, so her presence wasn't too unusual. He felt a smidge of guilt at not being able to come down and talk to her himself, but he just...couldn't._

_He couldn't..._

_He couldn't hear Hero._

_Kel's breath caught. He couldnt hear Hero's voice. Why - why couldn't he hear Hero's voice? Hero was still down there, right? Right, of course he was, he was just - listening more than he was talking. He was like that. Kel just had to wait a minute and he'd hear him, right? Right._

_He waited one minute, then two, then three, but he still, still couldn't hear his brother's voice. He stumbled to the door, pressed his ear against the wood and strained to hear, but - nothing. He couldn't hear Hero._

_He felt his breathing pick up. He clenched his hands to keep them from shaking. He couldn't hear his brother - **why couldn't he hear his brother?!** Where was he? Where was he? Where was he?! His pulse pounded, a constant banging in his ears growing louder and louder, until it drowned out the leftover faint conversation. He couldn't hear his parents anymore because of it, he couldn't hear Sally, he couldn't hear Aubrey, he couldn't hear anyone._

_They were still down there, right? He needed to make sure they were still down there. He needed to make sure they were okay. But - but he couldn't lift his hand to twist the doorknob. There was a pit of terror deep in his stomach, dread taking hold of his blood and filling his veins. He was frozen in fear, and his pulse was still raging like mad. Kel was Afraid, he was too scared to go downstairs, he was too scared to turn around, he was too scared to move and he still couldn't hear over that pounding-_

_The door opened. Kel had to fall back to avoid getting hit in the face. Hero peeked in, leaning over him worriedly and carrying a plate of food. Chatter drifted in through the open door. Kel's panic left him in an instant._

_They were fine. They were fine. They were fine._

_He was fine._

Kel didn't like the quiet. He never did. It was boring and suffocating and he always felt compelled to fill it. After the summer he'd had, the feeling only got worse. He couldn't just _not stand_ the quiet, he _despised_ it. It set his nerves on fire and he could never fully relax if there wasn't some sort of noise. 

In his own time, his parents recognized (re: were told about) that need of his, and bought him a white noise machine to put in his room. It wasn't quite the same as the reassuring sounds of people and _life_ , but it kept him from having only his thoughts to listen to. Especially when he couldn't just blare his stereo as loud as possible to drown out his brain. It helped, if only a little.

He did not have a white noise machine now. Or a stereo, or his phone and earbuds, or Sally's baby shows playing on the TV, or literally anything to fill the silence. Even if he did, the tense atmosphere of the house would not allow him to disrupt it without consequence.

Needless to say, he...didn't sleep very well that night. He didn't expect to, honestly. The more time that passed, the more the reality that he _really was_ living through all this bullshit again cemented in his mind. It didn't feel entirely real at first, but...Wow. He _really was living through all this bullshit again_. Added onto his earlier scare, by the time his parents finally came home and he allowed himself to fall into bed, he was a tightly wound ball of anxiety.

He was usually quick to fall asleep, but just because he could go lights out the moment he hit the pillow didn't necessarily mean he stayed asleep. He tossed and turned all night, spending more time reminding himself how to _breathe_ than actually resting.

It got to the point where he decided to leave bed an entire hour earlier than usual just to escape. He grabbed a poptart to eat once his appetite was strong enough for breakfast, and stood at the bus-stop listening to the birds. He was exhausted, but he _just_ had to get through this _one day_. Just one more day, and then he could...do...something.

...He kept telling himself to just get through Friday, but he wasn't actually sure what he'd do over the weekend. Apart from getting a slice of pizza at Gino's and using it to dry his tears, of course.

Wait. Did he even have money?

The sad realization that he was once again stuck with a middle schooler's allowance - one that his parents would doubtless forget about due to present circumstances - was heartbreaking enough to send him to his knees.

He was broke. He was broker than broke, actually, because now he couldn't even beg Hero for pocket change. He managed to save up a full _one hundred dollars_ over the summer, and now, poof! It was gone. All his hard-earned savings, gone! His wallet was empty. It was so empty he didn't even _have_ it anymore, because he got his wallet at the beginning of eighth grade, and he was in seventh. Forget being forced to relive one of the most depressing years of his life, this was the worst thing to ever fucking happen to him.

Melodrama was a _great_ way to pass the time! Kel managed to spend that _entire_ extra hour mourning his lost funds. He picked himself back up right on time for the bus to appear, and mentally congratulated himself at being so good at time wasting.

Kel sat in the front of the bus. Aubrey and her friends sat in the back.

Well, they would eventually, but at this point in time they haven't actually found their Spot on the bus yet. Such is the nature of newly developing friend groups... Unfortunately, on that particular day, they decided to migrate to the area _right behind him_ , meaning he could hear everything they said.

They said...a lot of things. Not all of them coherent. They were a group comprised of mostly twelve year-olds in the wee hours before school started. He could've sworn he overheard Angel mention sharks...something about their skeletons? Angel was a weird kid.

There was, naturally, talk about him - this was before Aubrey started targeting...someone else. Once upon a time, their jabs at his expense would've hurt, and at one point, even made him angry. But now?

_"Psst...look, there's Kel. Look at his stupid hair. He looks like a girl, ha!"_

_"A jersey? Again? He does know it's fall, right? Is he allergic to sleeves?"_

_"Hurr bdurr, I'm Kel~sey. I like playing ba~sketball. Ooh la la."_

Like he said, they were twelve. Kel was seventeen. He was _definitely_ right yesterday when he told himself he could verbally take on Aubrey. The _only_ foreseeable problem with listening to her insults would be trying not to laugh. It was already taking all his willpower not to burst into giggles.

He was going to break soon if he kept listening to this. Thankfully, a Non-Kel-Centric conversation was going on amongst Kim and Aubrey, and he shamelessly tuned in.

_"Kim...do you have any more granola bars?"_

_"Uhh...nope, sorry Aubs. Only reason I had that one was 'cause my mom's always forcin'em on me 'n Van."_

_A miserable groan._

_"Ugh...and with my luck breakfast is gonna suck today, too..."_

_"Ok, but when does it not?"_

_"True...remember that one time -"_

From there, the conversation moved on to the standard complaints of cafeteria food. Kel wasn't listening at that point, though. Kel...Kel had an idea.

He reached into his backpack, and took out a notebook.

His plan was simple: Aubrey was hungry, and he had a poptart. According to the social effect of recieving free food when hungry, if he left the poptart on her desk, and then left a note _with_ the poptart, she would be more likely to listen to what he wrote! He trusted this would work, if only because he knew how much Aubrey adored free food, and also because it would 100% work on him. 

All he had to do was tell her to meet him at the Hideout tomorrow so they could talk, and boom! The Aubrey problem was solved. It even gave him time (an entire afternoon) to think of what to say, and since his dad didn't work weekends, he wouldn't have to leave Hero by himself. The plan was _foolproof!_

...Just in case it wasn't, though, he remembered a little something he could use as insurance. For old times', sake, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo....i actually proofread this chapter before posting it for once. are you proud of me yet.

**Author's Note:**

> time travel fix-it au my beloved


End file.
